Hopeful Doom
by Saint Joy
Summary: In which Eridan Ampora finds himself in another dream bubble, only to find the one person he wanted to see.


The seadweller fiddled with the cuff of his sleeve as he walked down the cobblestone path of the land he always found so familiar. All monochrome, huge church steeples, a stark white sky. The only thing absent was the presence of serpentine angels darting among the spires. Maybe he had finally killed them all. Serves the bastards right for attacking him in the first place. He looked around through the shades he alchemized for himself in his session. It was awfully quiet, and that bothered him. He halted his gait and glanced behind him, only to find a single angel slithering towards him at an incredibly alarming pace. It was too late for the seadweller to whip out his Ahab's Crosshairs that he so assumed he had with him. The angel clawed into his throat, spewing violet blood all over his clothes and sending him flying to the ground. And that was when Eridan Ampora remembered.

He was dead.

The angel disappeared as fast as it had come, and Eridan stood up like the wound in his neck was nothing. He spat out a glob of blood and scowled. "Lousy coddamn stupid angels," he grumbled. "It's bad enough that I'm already dead, an' now I have to relive it over an' over again? Or rather, re-_die_ it." He continued to step down the path as he tried to remember how he got to where he was in the first place. It was probably a side-effect of being in a doomed timeline. Stupid fuckin' time shenanigans. Why couldn't things just stay linear for once? It would make life (and death, for that matter) a hell of a lot easier.

As he continued walking, he noticed the buildings around him start to turn faintly pink with brain-like gauges, as did the roads fade from cobblestone to dirt. Flames began to lick the sides of the churches and turn them a scorched brown. Eridan recognized it; he had been there before, but couldn't remember at all why. The hills of his land flattened out into burned plains, and soon that cut off at a cliff overlooking a reddened sky that hurt the seadweller's eyes to look at. But through the bright glare, he spotted a silhouette sitting on the edge of the clidd. It, too, was familiar. He stopped about ten feet away; he flinched when the figure turned to face him.

"ED," the figure said.

"Sol," replied Eridan. Sollux Captor turned his head back around to face the sky.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Nothin' in particular," Eridan answered. "Was just wanderin' around, an' here I am." He heard the other troll snort unattractively.

"Tho what, are you waiting for an invitation?" Sollux remarked, his lisp prominent in his speech.

"An invitation for what?"

"Thit with me, you douchebag," he chuckled as he waved for Eridan to come over. "At thith point I'll jutht talk with anyone. Been alone for too fucking long." The seadweller's face softened as he slowly made his way over to Sollux and sat down on the edge with him. He was careful to plant his feet on a small ledge on the cliff for stability, in the case he found himself about to fall off. "I'm guething you're dead, too?"

"Pretty much," Eridan said lamely. "It kinda sucks sea scum, but I guess I'll get used to it eventually."

"Mm," the twin-horned troll mumbled. "But the feeling that you were jutht a failure, a doomed thelf… that never goeth away, thorry to thay."

"Why're you bein' all pessimistic now? It's not gonna do you any good or anyfin."

"Don't thtart uthing the fish punth now. It'th obnoxiouth."

"Fine, just answer my question, Sol."

"Becauthe, if you haven't notithed, I'm fucking dead. How elthe am I going to act?" Eridan sighed.

"I dunno, Sol. Maybe you could just _try_ an' think about the positives, you know?"

"What'th there to be pothitive about? All we have to look forward to ith an eternity of wandering through dream bubbleth and meeting up with other doomed thelveth or thometimeth our own Alpha thelveth," Sollux grumbled. "I find, in thith particular thituation, it'th betht jutht to acthept you're dead and get on with your life. Or death. Whatever."

"Well," the seadweller began, "I'm here now. You're not alone anymore."

"Hn."

"If you don't mind me askin', how'd you die?" Sollux turned to look at him with his blank eyes, the normal red and blue replaced by death white.

"Thometime after you died, in my timeline. GZ went on a rampage and bathically killed everyone." He paused. "I onthe met up with KK. From the Alpha timeline. Apparently, you didn't die in hith timeline and killed a bunch of people, too." Eridan stared at his feet solemnly, kicking them against the bedrock. "But. You didn't kill me. Jutht knocked me out. But it wath thtill an athhole move. But even tho, KK dragged me with him after that, and conthequently thaved me by the time GZ thtarted killing people."

"Is that so," the seadweller muttered. "So I saved you, is what you're saying."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Not savin' you in your timeline. Our timeline, I'm thinkin'. For bein' stupid and killin' those stupid angels and then gettin' myself killed by one," he confessed. "Ironic, huh." Sollux snorted again, and subtly edged closer to Eridan.

"Don't apologithe. It'th not attractive and makes you look thtupid."

"Well!" Eridan snapped. "Here I am tryin' to be nice an' all, an' then you go an' be an asshole to me."

"Pfft. Like you don't detherve it."

"Shut up. You an' your stupid lisp."

"You know you alwayth had a thing for it." Eridan chuckled mildly, and ever so subtly set his hand down next to Sollux's.

"Kinda like how you always had a thing for me bein' an asshole?" he asked.

"Sure, let'th go with that," the twin-horned troll teased, taking the initiative and moving his hand so it was on top of the seadweller's. "Tho, what do you feel like doing for the retht of eternity?"

"For now, I think just stayin' here works for me. What about you?" he said, smiling. Upon seeing a faint grin cross Sollux's face, he smiled even wider.

"I gueth I feel the thame," he replied. "Let'th watch the goddamn thun thet, ED. How'th that for romantic?"

"Just perfect, Sol," Eridan whispered. "Absolutely perfect."


End file.
